OPINION:Social exclusion and poverty are not the same and amalgamating units dealing with both will create a larger organisation . . . but a less effective one, writes Brian Duncan
THE COMBAT Poverty Agency was established in 1986 to advise the government on economic and social policies to tackle poverty. At that time, unemployment levels were at 17 per cent; mass emigration saw 28,000 people leaving the country every year, and consistent poverty stood at 16 per cent. Back then, no one was tracking poverty levels and the infrastructure to tackle poverty was practically non-existent.
The creation of Combat Poverty was thanks to the efforts of anti-poverty campaigners and enlightened politicians who realised that poverty is not in anybody's interest and that for it to be addressed in a meaningful way, the State needed the best available policy analysis, research and advice.
Since 1986, Combat Poverty has achieved a huge amount on a small budget. Unlike any other State body, its policy advice is based not just on academic research but on practical projects that test new solutions within community settings.
Over time, poverty solutions piloted by Combat Poverty have been accepted into the mainstream, leading to significant changes across all policy areas from social welfare to health, to education.
Combat Poverty was a pioneer of the Community Development Programme which supports individuals and communities to work together to bring about positive changes in their lives and those of their communities. Today, there are over 270 community development projects funded by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The agency also prompted regular poverty surveys by the CSO and convinced the Government that it needed a strategic, whole-of-Government response to poverty.
By adopting this role as a catalyst for change, Combat Poverty has been able to continuously shift its focus to address new and emerging causes of poverty, without increasing staff numbers.
Last year, the Office for Social Inclusion - a unit based within the Department of Social and Family Affairs - embarked on a review of Combat Poverty. This has resulted in a recommendation to Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin that Combat Poverty and the Office for Social Inclusion should merge.
These two organisations carry out very different functions. On the one hand, Combat Poverty independently identifies and analyses the causes and extent of poverty, and makes policy recommendations on what needs to be done. It also has a duty to raise public understanding of poverty and the solutions that are needed to address it.
On the other hand, the Office for Social Inclusion co-ordinates the implementation of the Government's social inclusion agenda. With the best will in the world, it is not really in its interests to go looking for new problems to solve, or to publicly announce what they are. Any attempt to merge these two organisations is unlikely to deliver significant cost savings, and could simply result in one larger, but considerably less effective, entity.
The economic progress of the past decade has helped to lift people out of poverty and ensure that a whole generation of children have access to the resources they need to prosper and thrive. However, not everyone benefited. Poverty remains a reality: today, some 300,000 people, including approximately 100,000 children, are deprived of basic necessities and suffer knock-on effects in terms of health, education and social exclusion.
The current economic downturn is threatening to make this situation worse and is beginning to unravel the progress of the past decade. New poverty challenges are likely to arise in the years ahead, linked to recent changes in Irish society, such as rising unemployment, inflation, immigration, rising personal debt, falling house prices and the international credit crisis.
Combat Poverty supports the government, not by speaking on its behalf, but by ensuring that real issues and appropriate solutions are identified, assessed and communicated in an objective, well developed and impartial way. This independent stance is vital given the growing politicisation of policy advice within Government departments, which has been referred to in the recent OECD Review of the Irish Public Service.
The proposed merger of Combat Poverty into the civil service would stifle its ability to continue to fulfil its statutory functions and would effectively result in its abolition. Repealing the Combat Poverty Agency Act just before the EU Year of Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, 2010 would suggest a significant lack of commitment to Social Europe and the EU Social Protection and Social Inclusion process.
Combat Poverty can play a key role in supporting the Government to meet its poverty reduction targets by 2016, but to optimise its potential it requires a higher degree of autonomy and a corresponding level of accountability, as recommended in the OECD review of the Irish public service.
Combat Poverty can support the Government's commitment to protect the most vulnerable in society in the uncertain times that lie ahead, but that can only be achieved by maintaining the agency's independence.
In short, if it's not broke - don't fix it.
Brian Duncan is chairman of the Combat Poverty Agency